We understand something with reference to its opposite. It is the polarity that leads us to the neutrality of unity, says Sushmita. A Different Truths exclusive.
Life is so designed, on the physical plane, that we understand something with reference to its opposite. It is the polarity — even if from the perspective of the reality, from the realm of the absolute, it is illusory— that leads us to the neutrality of unity. It is the sense of “otherness” that leads us to transcend it and arrive at the Oneness—of all and everything. And so, has been naturally and gratefully coming up as an acknowledgment through this space, this very space also arising out of the recognition of the “synonymy” [1] in the apparent disparity.
Synonyms and antonyms, both, have their places intact, none seeking to replace the other. Rather, they are found to embrace one another too, all differences dissolved and resolved, melting in the crucible of Oneness that life is. Each has its significance, and in this singularity-in-plurality and plurality-in-singularity that life is, each, in one way or the other, complements the other, affirming: “We are all offspring of the same Spring, our mission the same, as we endeavor to express and explain to the best approximation (at best it is that; no description can be universally vouched as universally accurate, passing through the unique sieves of perception and flowing out as unique flow of creativity).”
So has Neale Donald Walsch Sir extolled: “In absence of that which you are not, that which you are, is not.” [2]
The impact of this exfoliation might be quite palpable to you all, as it keeps extending and presenting itself, through this space too! Such is the impact of Neale Donald Walsch, too, in totality. Frequent is his thought-provoking, and even incredulity-evoking, declarations! And it is through him that I got led to acknowledge and realize: Giving is receiving!
He advises and affirms, repeatedly: To give, what one wishes for oneself, it being the surest way to receive that, that one wishes for.[3]
If one wishes to experience love, one must give love…one must love. To experience financial affluence, one must give away money…and the like, he has presented as examples for the purpose of understanding the profundity of the truth conveyed.
It took me quite a while to understand the gravity, the truth conveyed, and once and since I did, I find myself gravitating towards it! It is all about being “centred” … and so are we pulled by gravity to our centre, our ground of being, pulling us and making us grounded in and as the truth!
A plethora of examples and experiences clamor and contest for attention, as they forward themselves in the consciousness, resonating with and echoing: Giving is receiving! Giving and receiving ever retain their individuality, yet, show their one color. To receive, one must give. But then, one doesn’t give, because one wishes to receive. One receives through giving only when the giving is free from reciprocation-seeking, is a spontaneous giving…
Subsequent to Neale Sir, guiding to receive the given, it has been Saint Francis of Assisi’s prayer that I received, 
acknowledging, giving is receiving: “For it is in giving that we receive.” [4]
Incidents are aplenty, in the chamber of experiences, in consonance with what Neale Sir and the prayer of St Francis of Assisi affirms and beckons to. And of the whole lot, that I find the simplest and commonest of all examples, is the instance of giving a smile.
We say that we give (we gave) a smile to someone. But who received the warmth of that smile, first? Who experienced the concurrent and instantaneous feeling of well-being? Whose mood elevated first? The smile that spreads across the face and widens the lips, elates and elevates the mind of the smile-giver before it crosses over to the one to whom it is directed. Furthermore, the smile might not evoke a smile from that person (for which reasons could be many). But that doesn’t rob the giver of the warmth, that doesn’t stop the giver from becoming a recipient in that very and same moment. Yes, subsequently one might feel bad, might feel rebuffed, but the feeling evoked within, by the smile evoked from within, cannot be called a bluff!
In the very moment of giving, one becomes the recipient, and the more and complete is one’s intent of giving, the extent of receiving too is in correspondence, despondence given up and overcome, by giving out joy…by giving out that that one wishes for self. It is two-in-one, a coin, that giving and receiving is, giver and receiver not separate but one. If there is no receiver, one would go without the joy of giving, and go without receiving the joy given!
Oneness is made manifest as otherness, the otherness an illusion, disappearing in the moment of giving, a moment of receiving.
It is gracious, absolutely, completely reciprocating that life is. The given doesn’t go unreciprocated. When the subtleties of life one tastes, one is engrossed in it, grateful, finding the gross no more engrossing and alluring, the lure no more of the opposites, life seen and acknowledged as one infinite composite. Life posits nothing for reciprocation, life being reciprocation in motion, unconditional!
So, has it given me to give the received, and thus, gratefully I give out the received, another realization—rather, a correlation with reciprocity, with mechanism of life, which has been ever there, but seen only when the given is received to give!
“Life is an echo.”
“As we sow, so we reap.”
As we give, so we get. We receive the given by us. It is a reciprocal affair, this “fair” of life, whether we find it fair or otherwise, the fare received, the fare given.
Truly, in giving lies receiving, all, that one is and is given by life!
[1] http://www.differenttruths.com/literature/criticism/opportunity-a-platform/
[2] Walsch, Neale Donald. Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 3). London: Hodder and Stoughton; 1999, p. 353.
[3] http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/About/Neale Accessed on 3 July 2018.
[4] https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/prayer/traditional-catholic-prayers/saints-prayers/peace-prayer-of-saint-francisAccessed on 3 July 2018.
©Sushmita Mukherjee
Photos from the Internet
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